A Peruvian congressman was detained on suspicion of physically assaulting a woman on July 30, adding to a record of prior criminal convictions.
Julián Pérez Mallqui, who represents Cusco in congress for the Juntos por el Perú party, was held at the San Miguel police station. The party had not commented on the incident at the time of publication.
The woman who filed the assault complaint is the same person who previously served as Pérez Mallqui’s lawyer in one of his earlier legal cases, according to the newspaper’s reporting.
Pérez Mallqui’s criminal record, declared in documents filed with the National Elections Jury, includes convictions for negligent injury, domestic violence, and false declaration in an administrative procedure. The combined sentences total roughly eight years of deprivation of liberty, though not all were served effectively.
2024 traffic accident
The negligent injury conviction stems from a traffic accident in the Cusco district of Pichari in 2024. A court sentenced him to four years and six months, suspended, and ordered him to pay S/ 80,000 in civil reparation to the affected family. One of the victims was a minor.
A police report from that incident stated that Pérez Mallqui ignored officers’ instructions to present himself to authorities and showed signs consistent with alcohol consumption.
Speaking to the Sunday program Panorama, Pérez Mallqui denied driving drunk and described the incident as a collision rather than a deliberate act. He also said he considered the civil reparation unjust, claiming the amount demanded would reach S/ 350,000.
Vilma Palomino, the mother of the minor struck in the 2024 accident, said her daughter suffers from seizures and skull fractures and remains hospitalized at a local medical center.
